Hospital not responsible for your barrenness, KMPDC tells Mwingi patient

 The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Council  (KMPDC) has dismissed a complaint from a Mwingi patient about her case regarding barrenness arising from an alleged botched Caesarean-Section.

Ms Benendeta Makaa had been treated in a private hospital in Mwingi town and developed a complication that led to removal of her uterus.

She is seeking justice after the procedure left her with sudden bleeding in July 2019. She was 33 years old and six months pregnant then. The C-Section operation carried on her left her unborn baby boy dead. She later developed complications that led to the removal of her uterus. This consequently made her barren.

Two years later, the KMPDC Complaints Commission which handled Ms Makaa’s case has found Mumbuni Maternity and Nursing Home not at fault saying Makaa’s case held no water.

Dr Joram Ndirangu performed the contentious C-Section. He was named the first respondent in a professional negligence complaint DC Case No. 14 of 2020. The private hospital is the second respondent in that case.

In a ruling delivered by KMPDC Complaints Committee, the case was found to have no merit.  Dr Abdi Mohammed headed the committee.  The report that was released on February 21, 2022 read in part, ; “The Committee holds that the complaint as lodged herein by the complainant against the 1st and 2nd respondents has no merit and does not warrant further inquiry.”

Heartbroken

But speaking to Mwingi Times, Ms Makaa said that despite being heartbroken by the unfair ruling of KMPDC Committee, she will sue the doctors’ lobby. She also approached Fida for support.

“It is overt that I have been denied justice. I was left barren after the rotting placenta destroyed my uterus leading to its eventual removal. That has caused chaos in my marital life and my spouse does not find me worth if I cannot bring forth children,” said Makaa amid sobs on Monday.

In its ruling, the KMPDC Complaints Committee pointed out that Dr Jacinta Muthoni Njagi an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist who later attended to Makaa at Embu Level Five Hospital had revealed that the placenta tissue may have bee the major cause of rotting of Ms Makaa’s uterus.

The Committee further said that Ms Makaa had self-referred to Embu general hospital over oozing of a filthy discharge that was laced with pus and was in acute abdominal pain. Dr Njagi had operated on Ms Makaa.

The KMDPC ruling also added that Dr Ndirangu had said that during the C-Section on Makaa at Mumbumi Maternity and Nursing Home, he had found Makaa’s placenta to be abnormally adhesive. It said that the doctor thus removed part of the placenta.

In its ruling, the Dr Mohammed-led Committee further said that its findings were that the Complainant had two previous C-Section and one miscarriage. It was not clear whether she had been evacuated, the Committee said.

“The Committee notes the patient’s history of two previous C/S scars and one miscarriage for which it had not been indicated if she had an evacuation done. The Committee opines that this predisposes the patient to having abnormally adherent placenta.” added the ruling.

In its ruling, the Committee finds that the resulting complications that Ms Makaa developed were not related to acts or omissions that can be considered as negligence by either Respondents in the complaint case at hand.

STORY By JOHN MUSEMBI